Agree. Naturally theming only helps but the location is crucial. I'm, thinking about most of Hersheypark's coasters which despite having little to no theming look really nice due to their location (great bear, skyrush, comet,...)
^Rosamund Pike's performance was really good. I can't say she deserved the oscar as I didn't watch the films with the other nominees but I thought it was great.
That was also my opinion. As to Keaton deserving the oscar, I don't know. I thought it was a real shame that Jake Gyllenhaal wasn't nominated as his performance on NightCrawler was the best I saw this year (in my opinion)
I've never ridden it in the back. Only in the front (most of the times) and three times in other seats which were rougher then than the front but not really enough to make the ride unpleasant. (maybe that's because I've never tried the very back)